System Management

Suppose you have created a task sequence, advertised it and booted from task sequence media or however you want; if you receive the following error: “Task Sequence: <TS name> has failed with the error code (0×80004005). For more information, please contact your system administrator or helpdesk operator.” at Setup Windows and ConfigMgr step you might want to check the Product Key! Most probably the key is not correct, so either write another one or remove the product key at all from Apply Windows Settings step in your task sequence and you will have to provide it during the install phase.

I left the product key blank and next time I booted the PC from the TS media, at the Setup Windows and ConfigMgr step I was asked to provide a product key. I entered my Business edition product key and everything was ok.

I just spent half an hour trying to understand why my task sequence cannot find the files on a distribution point; although the TS runs normally, I see all available TSs and I can choose the one I need. Then I found why: I missed something I never missed before and that must not be forgotten! I forgot to configure the network access account .

So, if you receive the following error: “This task sequence cannot be run because the program files for <your package here> are inaccessible on the distribution point.”

you should check if your network access account are configured and the information is correct.

To resolve this issue, you must correctly configure the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 client network access account. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Use an account that has administrative permissions to log on to a computer that has the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Administrator Console installed.
2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Systems Management Server, and then click SMS Administrator Console.
3. Expand ServerName, expand Site Management, expand SiteName, and then expand Site Settings.
4. Click Client Agents, right-click Computer Client Agent, and then click Properties.
5. In the Computer Client Agent Properties dialog box, next to the network access account that you want to configure, click Set.
6. In the Windows User Account dialog box, enter the user name and the password that you want to use for the network access account, and then click OK two times.

Here is Microsoft’s article about this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935914

Yesterday, on SCCM TechNet forum, somebody asked me more info about “Format and Partition Disk” and “Apply Operating System Image” tasks in a task sequence. As the answer requires some screenshots to be provided, I decided to write a post here with that details and direct that user to this post.

Format and Partition Disk:

In SCCM console navigate to Computer Management, Operating System Deployment, Task Sequences. Suppose you already created or imported a new Microsoft Deployment Task Sequence. If not, do it now.

• Select the desired Task Sequence and click Edit in the Actions pane
• In the <Name> Task Sequence Editor window, in the left pane select Format and Partition Disk

• Click the yellow star to add a new partition
• In the Partition name type the name of your system partition, this will be you disk C:
• Under Partition options, select the Partition type as Primary
• Choose how you want to set partition size, use a percentage of all hard disk drive or a fixed value. I use 50% of the HDD size, because not every time I know what HDD size new laptops/PCs will have but for sure it will be more than 80GB
• Check the box to make this partition bootable
• Under Formatting options, choose the file system you want and check the Quick format checkbox (optional) to save time during installation
• Under Advanced options write a Variable name
• Click OK when you’re done making your changes

Now you’ll see this volume in the task sequence editor.

To add another partition click the yellow star again and fill in the following details:

• In the Partition name type the name of your partition, this will be you disk D:
• Under Partition options, select the Partition type as Primary
• To use all the remaining disk space, select “Use a percentage of remaining free space” and set the Size(%) to 100
• Under Formatting options, choose the file system you want and check the Quick format checkbox (optional)
• Under Advanced options write a Variable name
• Click OK when you’re done making your changes

Now you’ll see both volumes in your task sequence editor window. Next time you will deploy an operating system, the hard disk will format and create 2 partitions (C: and D:) and your computer will boot from the first partition (C:).

How does SCCM know that it needs to apply the OS image on the first partition and not the second? Well, it doesn’t, we will set this up in the “Apply Operating System Image” task.

Apply Operating System Image:

In SCCM console navigate to Computer Management, Operating System Deployment, Task Sequences.

• Select the desired Task Sequence and click Edit in the Actions pane
• In the <Name> Task Sequence Editor window, in the left pane select Apply Operating System Image
• If you are installing the OS using the source media, then choose “Apply operating system from an original installation source” option using Browse choose one of the installation packages you have created when making the task sequence
• If you have captured and OS image previously as a .wim file, you can select “Apply operating system from a captured image” option and select the image you want

          - To apply the image on a specific partition, under Destination select “Specific disk and partition”. Under Disk select 0 (zero) and under Partition select 1 (first partition). This is the option I use every time
          - To apply the image on the C: partition, under Destination select “Specific logical drive letter”. Under Disk letter select C:

This is it about these two tasks. Of course these tasks can be further customized using the Option tab of each task.